CHARITY OF THE YEAR – HOPE 365

CHARITY OF THE YEAR – HOPE 365

Let us introduce our Charity of the Year for 2018…

Hope365 is an organisation that aims to rescue children from the streets of Shashemene, Ethiopia. There are between one and two thousand boys – some as young as seven who have no alternative but to sleep independently on the streets of Shashemene each night.

What do they do?

Hope365 aims to rescue these children and provide them with love, food, a place to sleep, as well as offering education and skills for life. Hope365 works with the government in Ethiopia, who refer on some of the boys that are in the most horrific positions. These children are brought to the Tesfa Manoriya Bota (Hope Home) centre where the Hope365 team, including psychologists and social workers, set about finding a long-term solution that suits each child that arrives at the home. Some are on the streets due to poverty, for others they may have been trafficked, while others are orphans with no one to look after them.

Michael Holmes, Chief executive of Hope365 said: ” I am delighted that Rumour Mill has offered its services to help raise the profile of Hope365.

“Hope365 relies so much on the time that others put in and people do this in so many different ways; some have contributed by donating items to our charity shops, baking and hosting bake sales to raise funds for us, others by using their photography hobbies to create calendars in aid of the charity, others offer monthly donations to offer financial help directly – there are endless ways to be involved in our team. We have lots of great stories like these to tell, and we’re appreciative that Rumour Mill can help us tell them.

“As there is such a huge need among the Street Kids in Ethiopia, most of our efforts are focused on trying to help improve their lives. As a relatively new local charity we simply don’t have the resources or expertise to be able to effectively communicate the good news stories from Ethiopia and the amazing generosity of the people in our country. Rumour Mill’s input is a real game changer for us.”

The Hope365 team has managed to rescue and reunite 22 children with their biological family during 2017 and expect to reunite approximately twice that number in 2018.

For the orphaned kids they offer the next best thing to a biological family, by creating small “family” homes where a maximum of eight children can grow together in a normal domestic house with specially trained house parents. The first of these family homes will be opening later this month, housing six children – the youngest of whom is approximately seven and the oldest around eleven. Having lived on the streets for so long the boys don’t know their age or even their birthday.

One of the Rumour Mill team will be visiting Shashemene early next month and will have the opportunity to see how the boys are settling into their new home.

We will be posting updates on her trip via our website and social media.

Rumour Mill PR is an award-winning Belfast-based public relations and experiential agency for the digital age. Creating integrated, multi-platform communications strategies that capture the imagination and spark the consumer’s curiosity. We like to think of ourselves as a hybrid agency – blending PR with social media, advertising, design and brand, to create a 360 approach to a client’s brief.